Program Evaluation: Texas Charter Schools

In 1995, the 74th Texas Legislature authorized the State Board of Education (SBOE) to establish the first open-enrollment charter schools in Texas. Evaluation reports pertaining to Texas charter schools are available in PDF format from the links below. TEA's Charter School Page provides more information about Charter Schools.

Annual Charters

Annual evaluation reports and executive summaries, required by Texas Education Code (TEC) §12.118, are available from the links below:

New Texas Charter Schools, 2007-2010

Since 1994, the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) has provided funding to new charter schools through grants designed to provide support for the planning and implementation of effective new charter programs. Each funding period of three years includes 1) up to 18 months that may be used for charter school planning and program design and 2) up to two years that may be used to implement the educational program. State education agencies receive the grant and provide funding to approved charter schools through a system of subgrants. As a condition of funding, state education agencies must evaluate new charter schools using objective criteria and quantitative and qualitative data. Reports and executive summaries are available from the links below:

Charter Authorizer Accountability Report

This study, added by Senate Bill 2 (83rd Texas Legislature, Regular Session), is required by TEC § 12.1013(a)-(d). This study requires the commissioner of education to select an Education Research Center to prepare a report “concerning the performance of open-enrollment charter schools by authorizer compared to campus charters and matched traditional campuses.” This report includes the aggregated performance of each school-type as well as the disaggregated performance of each school. The report and its associated appendices are available from the links below.

Current Research

A comprehensive evaluation of Texas Public Charter School Start-up Grant is currently being conducted as part of a grant from the U.S. Department of Education. The goal of this evaluation is to identify 1) best practices with respect to the use of grant funds and 2) the extent to which student outcomes differ by type of charter, by the mission of the charter, and between new charter schools and traditional neighborhood schools serving similar populations of students. This evaluation is being conducted by ICF International. A comprehensive report is expected in spring 2016.